Investing in training software is just that—an investment. While there are no shortage of options to consider, it’s important that organizations choose a learning management system (LMS) that provides the best company fit as well as return on investment (ROI).
If your organization is in pursuit of powerful LMS reporting and analytics that produce more successful training outcomes, we suggest additionally exploring how certain key features can affect your company’s ROI.
Understanding your LMS ROI
In just these past few years, organizations have been increasingly introducing learning management systems to elevate the learning and training experience for employees in the workplace.
In fact, statistics from 2021 showed that 98% of large companies used an LMS to deliver training, with 96% of midsize companies and 80% of small companies doing the same.1 And, considering the learning management system (LMS) market is projected to reach $76.18 billion by 2030 — growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.1% from 2022 to 2030—the widespread adoption of LMS for workplace training is only expected to continue.2 However, as the use of LMS increases across organizations, business leaders and learning and development managers require an LMS that delivers the highest ROI.
The ROI for your LMS ultimately comes down to how your business and its bottom line are impacted by your training programs. Monitoring thelearning and development ROI of your LMS solution—and working to improve these results long-term—is a key factor in helping your organization:
- Mitigate wasted time, money, resources and effort.
- Track the effectiveness of training.
- Measure what value the learning and training opportunities helped create.
- Justify learning and training expenses.
6 features to look for in an LMS to improve overall ROI
At the end of the day, the combination of your LMS features can either considerably improve or hinder learning outcomes. As a result, organizations leveraging a learning management system need access to robust data and high-quality features that lead to the most effective online training.
The top 6 features to look for in your next LMS — to not only improve your ROI but also enhance the overall learning and training experience for employees — include:
1. Custom reports
Online custom reporting allows organizations to choose which metrics they would like to track, as well as how they prefer to view this data. Choosing a system that provides custom reporting capabilities helps business leaders assign user roles and deliver relevant reports to team members. This might include certification progress reports—which can identify both top performers and underperformers for managers to keep in mind.
2. Multilingual support
A powerful LMS won’t require additional digital tools to translate content. Instead, your LMS should offer multilingual support that automatically displays the localized version of learning and training content — which is typically based on user location. This gives employees access to training materials in their native language and ensures all team members have the same training opportunities. Considering 40% of companies now offer at least some remote work, this will prove integral moving forward.3
3. Course authoring tool
A fully integrated course authoring tool helps learning and development managers quickly produce and develop learning content and online resources to keep pace with organizational needs and changes as they come. Not only does this ensure that content can be easily modified in-house, it also reduces costs by eliminating the need for additional tools to create content.
4. Certification management
Finding an LMS that offers adequate certification management benefits both employees and business leaders. Manually tracking certifications can be time consuming, and in the event a renewal is missed or forgotten, employees may inadvertently cause regulatory compliance issues for the employer. Tracking certifications in an LMS creates a single source of truth for employee training data, and many platforms include automatic reminders to ensure renewals are completed on time.
5. Automated report scheduling
Automated report scheduling, in combination with custom reporting capabilities, allows organizations to specify not only who receives this data, but how often. This can help your managers eliminate reminders and queries so they can focus on data integrity and maintenance. For example, organizations can set up automated weekly email links to guarantee stakeholder reports are in their inbox before they’ve even requested them.
6. Gamification
Gamification is a fast-growing trend in the workplace that is intended to make learning and training processes more fun and rewarding. The gamification approach has been consistently shown to increase employee engagement, productivity and happiness.4 By considerably boosting learning engagement and participation rates, your organization is likely to see substantial improvements in training ROI — while identifying top performers on the team along the way.
Maximizing and improving your organization’s LMS ROI
While the features of an LMS are critical components to consider when working to improve the ROI of your learning and training programs, focusing on specific actions, like driving revenue, reducing costs and generally enhancing workplace productivity, can be a substantial boon to this objective.
Here are a few helpful tips to guarantee your system achieves the highest value for your organization:
- Choose a cost-effective system: Organizations need an LMS that drives efficiency while cutting costs. This might include finding a system provider that offers tailored pricing options to meet your specific needs.
- Improve mobility and accessibility: Employees should be able to access training materials at their convenience, from anywhere they might be needed. A powerful LMS will effectively remove barriers to learning and training opportunities in your organization.
- Promote adequate professional development: The right LMS will promote professional development and help employees meet unique goals. By improving employee satisfaction through improved learning opportunities, organizations can increase employee retention and decrease turnover costs long term.
- Reduce in-person training: In-person training is costly. Cut physical training costs—from venues and instructors to materials and travel expenses—with an LMS that streamlines the online training process and produces successful results.
Improving the ROI of your LMS should be a consistent objective that is worked on over time—to optimize usage and improve both the training itself and subsequent employee satisfaction. Ultimately, choosing a high-quality LMS, and using it effectively, will lead to the most significant growth in your LMS ROI moving forward.
How Absorb LMS can help
For organizations in search of an LMS that provides the tools, solutions and capabilities needed to bring their learning and training to the next level—Absorb Software can help. Absorb LMS is the complete learning platform that’s designed to expertly support your unique organizational needs. The features of our learning management system help you streamline your learning and development processes through:
- Empowering administrators through automation.
- Enhancing and modernizing the user experience.
- Offering actionable reporting and analytics.
- Providing pre-built and API integrations.
These comprehensive features serve as a linchpin in providing the highest-quality learning and training experience, as well as improving your LMS ROI. Moreover, cloud-based technology meets learners’ needs anytime, anywhere—with 24/7/365 customer support to match.
Ready to implement a powerful LMS solution that’s built to meet your organization’s learning and training needs? Learn more about Absorb LMS reporting and analytics, or request a demo to get started!
1. https://trainingmag.com/2021-training-industry-report/
2. https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/download-sample/?rid=10723
